Barney's Blog

Metro Renamed Something Stupid

Microsoft is an amazing company with one huge but (fortunately) not fatal flaw -- it stinks at naming things.

The older names were fine: Word, Office, Windows. It's really lately that the names have been utter nonsense. Now forget the fact that it keeps renaming perfectly good products to keep us all confused. It even changed Hyper-v to Hyper-V (was this just to keep copy editors in business?).

Now Windows 8 has a new interface. This means the old interface can no longer just be called the Windows interface but is now called "Desktop." OK.

The new interface was called "metro," a meaningless name for a touch screen filled with a bunch of interactive blocks. But we got used to it. Not so fast. This was just a code name. The real name is Windows Store App. And yes, Windows Store App refers to the apps (where it makes perfect sense) as well as the interface. Let's see how this rolls off the tongue. Windows Store App interface. Windows Store App interface. Windows Store App user interface. The Windows Store App GUI. Smooth, eh?

Another little glitch -- not all of the Windows Store Apps come from the Windows Store. Enterprise apps are "side-loaded," meaning they don't go through the store. After all, why would you go to a store to buy your own app?

Even though metro didn't mean anything, it was fine. The lesson is code names are now officially a dumb idea. Aren't the computers themselves confusing enough, now we need to get certified in tracking all the names?